Computer Software:
Audirvāna Studio 3: $79.99 annual subscription
The latest version of this versatile streaming app, available for Windows and MacOS for host computers as well as a free companion Remote app for iOS and Android devices, includes a redesigned interface called Allegro, which streamlines the user experience and adds substantial DSP functionality, including 10-band parametric equalization, a Convolution Engine for room correction, Crossfeed for headphone listening, and Left-Right channel-level adjustment. There are also several upsampling algorithms. Audirvāna operates the connected DACs in exclusive mode, buffers music data in memory to reduce any read/write electrical noise, and operates at the lowest computational levels to reduce computational noise. Miguel Barrio used Audirvāna with the Métronome DSAS (see Media Servers) and found that they made a synergistic partnership. (Vol.49 No.9 WWW) Dirac Live ART Processor (Stereo): $349–$799
Dirac Live ART Processor (Multi): $499–$899 ★
Earlier versions of the Dirac room correction software have been very favorably reviewed in Stereophile. All three levels of the latest Dirac Live version are available for use on Windows 11 and macOS 11+ devices. There are two program modules, “Dirac Live Processor” (DLP) and “Dirac Live.” DLP applies the correction filters, so it must be installed into the playback path in either as a standalone app or as a plug-in: supported plug-in formats are AU, VST, VST3, and AAX. 01 Room Correction, which costs $349 for stereo, $499 for multichannel, is the core optimization technology, adapting each speaker to the user’s room and corrects for frequency and timing. It comes with Dirac Live Processor, which runs in the background and applies corrections for all three parts of Dirac Live. 02 Bass Control, which costs $299, automates subwoofer setup and minimizes seat-to-seat variation; if you don’t use subwoofers, you don’t need it. It’s an add-on; it can’t be used without the Room Correction part. 03 Speaker Cooperation, which also costs $299, is the ART part; it stands for Active Room Correction. It, too, is an add-on and works with Room Correction to tame resonances and decay between 20Hz and 150Hz. A bundle with all three products costs $799 for stereo, $899 for multichannel. If you already have 01 Room Correction, you can buy 02 Bass Control and 03 ART for $549. Kalman Rubinson used the stand-alone DLP with Roon and found its sonic performance entirely satisfying, every bit as good as the plug-in, though the standalone version only offers up to 8 channels while the plug-in can operate with up to 16 channels. In addition, the stand-alone DLP operates at only one sample rate at a time and does not respond to sample-rate changes in the source stream. To avoid the inconvenience of having to manually change sample rates, Rubinson used Roon to upsample or downsample audio data to the same fixed rate. Without ART Rubinson noted that the bass on some recordings was thick and imprecise and lacked impact. With ART, the bass was tight and powerful. “Everything else was still spacious but somehow more expansive—and quite thrilling, “ he wrote. “Although ART targets a range in the bass, its changes manifest all across the audible range, especially in the midrange and lower treble.” His conclusion? “ART cleans up the congestion imposed by listening room acoustics in the low bass and midbass, for added transparency, definition, power, and low-end extension … Together, the software suite’s amelioration of balance issues and elimination of frequency- and time-domain anomalies lead to a qualitative expansion of the soundstage. Dirac ART has made everything I have played, regardless of genre, resolution, or format, more enjoyable.” (Earlier versions, Vol.37 No.5, Vol.43 No.1, Vol.44 No.10 WWW; Live ART, Vol.49 No.9 WWW) JRiver Media Center: $99.98 (single platform); $124.98 (multi-platform)
Kalman Rubinson wrote in the January 2018 Stereophile: “If your [JRiver Media Center] setup is working to your satisfaction, there’s no need for you to download every new build.” Really. No need at all. But, having said that, … the 64-bit Windows version of Music Center became available in September 2017, and Rubinson reported that it’s better, stronger, and faster than the 32-bit version: “Since installing the 64-bit version of JRiver Music Center 23, I have heard not a single burp.” $79.98 for a “Master” License covering Linux, Windows, and MacOS. (Vol.41 No.1 WWW)
Roon Labs v 2.0: $14.99/month, $829.99/lifetime
Roon is a music-playback application that can be downloaded and run on the user’s desktop or handheld computer or on dedicated file players from manufacturers including Auralic, dCS, Linn, and Roon’s own Nucleus and Nucleus+. Described by Jon Iverson as “a tour de force of programming, design, and metadata mining,” Roon offers a graphically sophisticated user interface that, he said, looks good and feels natural. When first installed, Roon scans and incorporates the user’s existing music collection. Over time, it continues to “groom” that collection, taking into account new additions to the collection and to Roon Labs’ ever-growing library of metadata. With v1.8, Roon offered a major revision. “Visually, it’s new, and to me, better,” wrote Jim Austin. The recommendations engine, Valence, has been improved, with useful changes to the Focus feature, which now encompasses streamed music from Tidal and Qobuz#151;not just music in the user’s library. “The music I own and the music I rent is now one big, searchable, browsable library,” enthused Austin. Recently added: mobile capability via Roon ARC, essentially your own custom streaming service on your smart phone. Even more recently, Roon added customizable audio on the go via MUSE: custom EQ, crossfeed, volume leveling, even user-adjustable sample-rate conversion. Austin loves the signal-path display, which lets you know at a glance exactly what you’re listening to. John Atkinson is also a fan and sprung for the lifetime subscription. (Vol.44 No.5 WWW)
Signal Processors: Deletions
Chord Hugo M Scaler, not auditioned in a long time.
FM Tuners: A: DaySequerra FM Reference 25th Anniversary Modification: $3800 (+ cost of tuner) ★
David Day’s Signature Mod effectively addresses this ultimate FM tuner’s cathode-ray tube’s tendency to burn out. Switching circuitry has been added to allow the CRT to turn off when not needed. The Signature Mod also replaces the tuner’s incandescent bulb with longer-lasting LEDs, and uses hand-matched, low-group-delay filters for lower distortion and better channel separation. Larry Greenhill noted punchy, quick bass response, a deeper soundstage, and a more transparent midrange. “The new CRT’s greater range of brightness and longer life expectancy makes the Signature Modification essential for owners of the DaySequerra FM tuner.” The FMR25 upgrade replaces older models’ cathode-ray tube display circuitry with a much brighter and more reliable thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display, and adds a post-FM demodulation filter to remove noise at 99kHz and above. “A run-don’t-walk upgrade for owners of FM References,” decided Greenhill. Price is for upgrade only; does not include cost of tuner. (Vol.12 No.6, Vol.14 No.12, Vol.21 No.6, FM Reference; Vol.29 No.9, Signature Modification; Vol.36 No.11 25th Anniversary Edition WWW) Deletions
Tivoli Audio Model One BT, not auditioned in a long time.
The latest version of this versatile streaming app, available for Windows and MacOS for host computers as well as a free companion Remote app for iOS and Android devices, includes a redesigned interface called Allegro, which streamlines the user experience and adds substantial DSP functionality, including 10-band parametric equalization, a Convolution Engine for room correction, Crossfeed for headphone listening, and Left-Right channel-level adjustment. There are also several upsampling algorithms. Audirvāna operates the connected DACs in exclusive mode, buffers music data in memory to reduce any read/write electrical noise, and operates at the lowest computational levels to reduce computational noise. Miguel Barrio used Audirvāna with the Métronome DSAS (see Media Servers) and found that they made a synergistic partnership. (Vol.49 No.9 WWW) Dirac Live ART Processor (Stereo): $349–$799
Dirac Live ART Processor (Multi): $499–$899 ★
Earlier versions of the Dirac room correction software have been very favorably reviewed in Stereophile. All three levels of the latest Dirac Live version are available for use on Windows 11 and macOS 11+ devices. There are two program modules, “Dirac Live Processor” (DLP) and “Dirac Live.” DLP applies the correction filters, so it must be installed into the playback path in either as a standalone app or as a plug-in: supported plug-in formats are AU, VST, VST3, and AAX. 01 Room Correction, which costs $349 for stereo, $499 for multichannel, is the core optimization technology, adapting each speaker to the user’s room and corrects for frequency and timing. It comes with Dirac Live Processor, which runs in the background and applies corrections for all three parts of Dirac Live. 02 Bass Control, which costs $299, automates subwoofer setup and minimizes seat-to-seat variation; if you don’t use subwoofers, you don’t need it. It’s an add-on; it can’t be used without the Room Correction part. 03 Speaker Cooperation, which also costs $299, is the ART part; it stands for Active Room Correction. It, too, is an add-on and works with Room Correction to tame resonances and decay between 20Hz and 150Hz. A bundle with all three products costs $799 for stereo, $899 for multichannel. If you already have 01 Room Correction, you can buy 02 Bass Control and 03 ART for $549. Kalman Rubinson used the stand-alone DLP with Roon and found its sonic performance entirely satisfying, every bit as good as the plug-in, though the standalone version only offers up to 8 channels while the plug-in can operate with up to 16 channels. In addition, the stand-alone DLP operates at only one sample rate at a time and does not respond to sample-rate changes in the source stream. To avoid the inconvenience of having to manually change sample rates, Rubinson used Roon to upsample or downsample audio data to the same fixed rate. Without ART Rubinson noted that the bass on some recordings was thick and imprecise and lacked impact. With ART, the bass was tight and powerful. “Everything else was still spacious but somehow more expansive—and quite thrilling, “ he wrote. “Although ART targets a range in the bass, its changes manifest all across the audible range, especially in the midrange and lower treble.” His conclusion? “ART cleans up the congestion imposed by listening room acoustics in the low bass and midbass, for added transparency, definition, power, and low-end extension … Together, the software suite’s amelioration of balance issues and elimination of frequency- and time-domain anomalies lead to a qualitative expansion of the soundstage. Dirac ART has made everything I have played, regardless of genre, resolution, or format, more enjoyable.” (Earlier versions, Vol.37 No.5, Vol.43 No.1, Vol.44 No.10 WWW; Live ART, Vol.49 No.9 WWW) JRiver Media Center: $99.98 (single platform); $124.98 (multi-platform)
Kalman Rubinson wrote in the January 2018 Stereophile: “If your [JRiver Media Center] setup is working to your satisfaction, there’s no need for you to download every new build.” Really. No need at all. But, having said that, … the 64-bit Windows version of Music Center became available in September 2017, and Rubinson reported that it’s better, stronger, and faster than the 32-bit version: “Since installing the 64-bit version of JRiver Music Center 23, I have heard not a single burp.” $79.98 for a “Master” License covering Linux, Windows, and MacOS. (Vol.41 No.1 WWW)
Roon is a music-playback application that can be downloaded and run on the user’s desktop or handheld computer or on dedicated file players from manufacturers including Auralic, dCS, Linn, and Roon’s own Nucleus and Nucleus+. Described by Jon Iverson as “a tour de force of programming, design, and metadata mining,” Roon offers a graphically sophisticated user interface that, he said, looks good and feels natural. When first installed, Roon scans and incorporates the user’s existing music collection. Over time, it continues to “groom” that collection, taking into account new additions to the collection and to Roon Labs’ ever-growing library of metadata. With v1.8, Roon offered a major revision. “Visually, it’s new, and to me, better,” wrote Jim Austin. The recommendations engine, Valence, has been improved, with useful changes to the Focus feature, which now encompasses streamed music from Tidal and Qobuz#151;not just music in the user’s library. “The music I own and the music I rent is now one big, searchable, browsable library,” enthused Austin. Recently added: mobile capability via Roon ARC, essentially your own custom streaming service on your smart phone. Even more recently, Roon added customizable audio on the go via MUSE: custom EQ, crossfeed, volume leveling, even user-adjustable sample-rate conversion. Austin loves the signal-path display, which lets you know at a glance exactly what you’re listening to. John Atkinson is also a fan and sprung for the lifetime subscription. (Vol.44 No.5 WWW)
Signal Processors: Deletions
Chord Hugo M Scaler, not auditioned in a long time.
FM Tuners: A: DaySequerra FM Reference 25th Anniversary Modification: $3800 (+ cost of tuner) ★
David Day’s Signature Mod effectively addresses this ultimate FM tuner’s cathode-ray tube’s tendency to burn out. Switching circuitry has been added to allow the CRT to turn off when not needed. The Signature Mod also replaces the tuner’s incandescent bulb with longer-lasting LEDs, and uses hand-matched, low-group-delay filters for lower distortion and better channel separation. Larry Greenhill noted punchy, quick bass response, a deeper soundstage, and a more transparent midrange. “The new CRT’s greater range of brightness and longer life expectancy makes the Signature Modification essential for owners of the DaySequerra FM tuner.” The FMR25 upgrade replaces older models’ cathode-ray tube display circuitry with a much brighter and more reliable thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display, and adds a post-FM demodulation filter to remove noise at 99kHz and above. “A run-don’t-walk upgrade for owners of FM References,” decided Greenhill. Price is for upgrade only; does not include cost of tuner. (Vol.12 No.6, Vol.14 No.12, Vol.21 No.6, FM Reference; Vol.29 No.9, Signature Modification; Vol.36 No.11 25th Anniversary Edition WWW) Deletions
Tivoli Audio Model One BT, not auditioned in a long time.
